I suspect the world would be a better place if we were all exposed to the diversity that we find on places like LJ. Without the internet, I doubt I would have ever made friends outside this little town of Albion.

Happy Anniversary! I'm glad you're here. Isn't the Internet a wonderful thing at times? Funny, isn't it - it's likely we never would've "met" if it weren't for LJ, even though we lived within an hour's drive of each other for ages.

It certainly is funny, in a good way. About half a dozen of my LJ friends live or lived fairly close to me, but I never met any of them before connecting online. Some other people who I used to know have reconnected with me via the internet, and I just got an e-mail today from my ex-girlfriend, who moved back to New York four years ago. My column, which is published in three strictly local weekly papers that together probably don't have a circulation of more than a few thousand, is read by people in over a dozen different countries! (But I don't get paid extra for it.)

Really? I started mine because fanfic.com friends kept telling me to show my writing here. I didn't have the slightest idea it would blossom as it did. Of course, I didn't have the slightest idea I'd make it through so many July 14th's, either.